Airwave heads out on the Highways Agency

The Highways Agency is extending its rollout of the Airwave digital radio system to hundreds more staff.

More than 500 Highways Agency traffic officers have already been using the network since 2005. From later this year, 900 incident support unit personnel will join them on Airwave.

The deployment will help the incident support unit communicate with traffic officers within the Highways Agency, who help limit disruption after accidents or breakdowns through measures such as removing debris and repairing infrastructure.

Peter Richards, senior classic technology engineer on the Highways Agency's traffic technology team, said the network would provide the incident support officers with "a much slicker and smarter manner to clear incidents as effectively as possible".

The rollout follows a deployment by London Underground late last year that saw the Airwave system extended throughout 250 miles of Tube tunnels.

The public sector adoption of the system of Airwave radios has not been without difficulty so far. A Home Office report last month found the 43 police forces that cover England and Wales were not making full use of Airwave features that could help cut paperwork.